Develop Reference

Getting JSON data available to all scopes in JQuery/ javascript

With JQuery, I'm loading a set of postcode data via a json call, which is loaded once on document load to populate an option select. I can do that within the one function and it's fine.
However, every time the user selects a different postcode in the select, the code is fired (via .change), and I'm required to load the (quite large) same json data again to populate some different fields.
Because the first call is contained in the callback function, the data never gets outside that scope, and can't be reused again.
If someone changes the items 100 times, that's 100 times the data gets loaded, which seems wasteful, and slow.
Is there any way to call that data once, and have it available to the global/wider scope so it's accessible to the .change function?
EDIT Here's the code:
$(document).ready(function() {
GetPostcodes();
$("#postcodes").change(function() {
console.log("Selection Changed to " + $(this).val());
});
});
function GetPostcodes() {
$.getJSON("population.json", function(cases) {
var filtercases = $(cases).filter(function(i, n) {
return n.POA_NAME16 >= "2450" && n.POA_NAME16 <= "2489"
});
var postcodes = [];
$.each(filtercases, function(i, n) {
postcodes.push(n);
});
postcodes = postcodes.unique();
postcodes = postcodes.sort();
var options = [];
for (var i = 0; i < postcodes.length; i++) {
options.push('<option value="',
postcodes[i].POA_NAME16, '">',
postcodes[i].POA_NAME16, '</option>');
}
$("#postcodes").html(options.join(''));
});
}
Here's what the JSON looks like:
{
"POA_NAME16": 2000,
"Combined": "BARANGAROO,DARLING HARBOUR,,DAWES POINT,HAYMARKET,MILLERS POINT,PARLIAMENT HOUSE,SYDNEY,SYDNEY SOUTH,THE ROCKS",
"Tot_p_p": 27411
},
{
"POA_NAME16": 2006,
"Combined": "THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY",
"Tot_p_p": 1259
},
So while I'm only using the postcode data in the first call to populate the drop down box, I'd like to be able to access all the information for when the .change property is fired to show the other information.
Cheers

I think the problem has come that I've tried to do this:
GetPostcodes();
console.log(the global variable I set)
which doesn't work.
But if I don't reference that global variable until another event, everything's in there and working - so although I already had the answer - your help pushed me to look further in. Cheers :P

Meteor: Lazyload, load after rendering. Best practise

i have a Meteor Application which is very "slow" as there are a lot of API-Calls.
What i try to do is to break apart the loading/calls.
What i just did is:
i have loading template via iron-router
i waitOn for the first API-Call has finished
then i start the next API-calls in the Template.myTemplate.rendered - function
This was already a big benefit for the speed of my Application, but i want to break it up even more as the second call is in fact more like 5-25 API-calls.
So what i try to do now is inside the rendered function is a self-calling function which calls itself as long as there are no more to do and saves the response inside a session. (Until now it just rewrites, but even to this point i can´t get)
Template.detail.rendered = function(){
//comma separated list of numbers for the API-Call
var cats = $(this.find(".extra")).attr('data-extra').split(',');
var shop = $(this.find(".extra")).attr('data-shop');
var counter = 0;
var callExtras = function(_counter){
var obj = {
categories : [cats[_counter]],
shop : shop
};
if(_counter <= cats.length){
Meteor.subscribe('extra', obj,function(result){
//TODO dickes todo... nochmal nachdenken und recherchieren
//console.log(_counter);
Session.set('extra',Extra.find('extra').fetch()[0].results);
counter++;
callExtras(counter);
});
}
};
callExtras(counter);
Session.set('loading_msg', '' );
};
Now i have again problems with my reactive parts of the app desscribed here - Meteor: iron-router => waitOn without subscribe As i can´t find a proper way to update my client-side per user base collection. Also in the docs it is described the publish method also creates a new collection. (The new document´s ID) here - http://docs.meteor.com/#/full/publish_added
here is the publish from server
Meteor.publish('extra', function(obj){
var that = this;
Meteor.call('extra', obj, function(error, result){
if (result){
//console.log(result);
that.added("extra", "extra", {results: result});
//that.changed('extra','extra',{results: result});
that.ready();
} else {
//that.ready();
}
});
});
So my question is: Is there from scratch a better way to structuring my code means solving the problem somehow different? If not how can i achive it the cleanest way? Because for my understanding this is just strange way to do it.
EDIT:
For example.
Can i do a per-user-collection (maybe only client-side like now) and push data from the server and just subscribe to this collection? But then how can i check when the async API-Call has finshed to start the next round. So the view gets data piece by piece. I am just confused right now.

My fault was simple as i thaught: You don´t need to use subscribe.
I just added "error,result" in the callback of Meteor.call
Only "result" leads to the result is always undefined.
var cats = $(this.find(".extra")).attr('data-extra').split(',');
var shop = $(this.find(".extra")).attr('data-shop');
var counter = 0;
var callExtras = function(_counter){
var obj = {
categories : [cats[_counter]],
shop : shop
};
if(_counter <= cats.length){
Meteor.call('extra', obj,function(error,result){
var actual_session = Session.get('extra');
if(actual_session === false){
actual_session = [];
}
actual_session = actual_session.concat(result);
Session.set('extra',actual_session);
counter++;
callExtras(counter);
});
}
};
callExtras(counter);
Then in the template helper
"extra" : function(){
return Session.get('extra');
},

A property not initialized... yet it should be?

I have a list containing folders, and I'm trying to get the count of the total number of files in these folders.
I manage to retrieve a ListItemCollection containing my folders. Then it starts being... picky.
ctx is my ClientContext, and collection my ListItemCollection.
function countFiles()
{
var enumCollection = collection.getEnumerator();
while(enumCollection.moveNext())
{
currentItem = enumCollection.get_current();
var folder = currentItem.get_folder();
if (folder === 'undefined')
return;
ctx.load(folder, 'ItemCount');
ctx.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, function()
{
totalCount += folder.get_itemCount();
}), Function.createDelegate(this, onQueryFailed));
}
}
So it works... half of the time. If I have 6 items in my collection, I get 3 or 4 "The property or field 'ItemCount' has not been initialized" exceptions, and obviously my totalCount is wrong. I just can't seem to understand why, since the executeQueryAsync should not happen before the folder is actually loaded.
I'm very new to Javascript, so it may look horrid and be missing some essential code I didn't consider worthy of interest, feel free to ask if it is so.

Referencing closure variables (like folder in this case) from an asynchronous callback is generally a big problem. Thankfully it's easy to fix:
function countFiles()
{
function itemCounter(folder) {
return function() { totalCount += folder.get_itemCount(); };
}
var enumCollection = collection.getEnumerator();
while(enumCollection.moveNext())
{
var folder = enumCollection.getCurrent().get_folder();
if (folder === undefined) // not a string!
return;
ctx.load(folder, 'ItemCount');
ctx.executeQueryAsync(itemCounter(folder), Function.createDelegate(this, onQueryFailed));
}
}
(You don't need that .createDelegate() call because the function doesn't need this.)
Now, after that, you face the problem of knowing when that counter has been finally updated. Those asynchronous callbacks will eventually finish, but when? You could keep a separate counter, one for each query you start, and then decrement that in the callback. When it drops back to zero, then you'll know you're done.

Since SP.ClientContext.executeQueryAsync is an async function it is likely that the loop could be terminated before the first call to callback function completes, so the behavior of specified code could be unexpected.
Instead, i would recommend another and more clean approach for counting files (including files located under nested folders) using SharePoint JSOM.
How to count the total number of files in List using JSOM
The following function allows to count the number of list items in List:
function getItemsCount(listTitle, complete){
var ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var list = ctx.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle(listTitle);
var items = list.getItems(createQuery());
ctx.load(items);
ctx.executeQueryAsync(
function() {
complete(items.get_count());
},
function() {
complete(-1);
}
);
function createQuery()
{
var query = new SP.CamlQuery();
query.set_viewXml('<View Scope="RecursiveAll"><Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name="FSObjType" /><Value Type="Integer">0</Value></Eq></Where></Query></View>');
return query;
}
}
Usage
getItemsCount('Documents', function(itemsCount){
console.log(String.format('Total files count in Documents library: {0}',itemsCount));
});

Cant get the current id of a data from local Storage using jquery

I am working on an app to store data offline. My problem is when I try to retrieve the data from local storage for update/edit, it keeps calling only the id of the first item, and not calling the id of the data in view.
Please what am I doing wrong?
Here is my code for loading employees:
// load cases from localStorage
var employees;
if (localStorage.getItem('employees')) {
employees = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('employees'));
} else {
// If no cases, create and save them
employees = [];
// offling storing of our cases
localStorage.setItem('employees', JSON.stringify(employees));
}
// show case listing in list view page
var showEmployees = function () {
//erase existing content
$('#employee_list').html('');
//insert each employee
for (var i = 0; i<employees.length; i++) {
addEmployees(employees[i]);
}
};
Here is my code to add an employee to list view:
//add an eliment to list view
var addEmployees = function (empData) {
//HTML content of one list element
var listElementHTML = '<li><a class="employee_list" ui-btn ui-btn-e ui-btn-icon-right ui-icon-carat-r" data-transition="fade" data-split-icon="delete" href="#item'+empData.id+'">' + empData.employeename + '<br> ' + empData.dateofbirth + '</br></a></li>';
//appending the HTML code to list view
$('#employee_list').append(listElementHTML);
};
Here is my code for Edit function:
//User input to edit form
$('#edit_employee_page').on('click' , function () {
var editEmployee = JSON.stringify({
id: employees.length+1,
employeeno: $('#employeeno').val(),
employeename:$('#employeename').val(),
stateoforigine:$('#stateoforigine').val(),
employeephone: $('#employeephone').val(),
dateofbirth:$('#dateofbirth').val()
});
//Alter the slected data
localStorage.setItem("employees", JSON.stringify(employees));
return true;
});
for (var i in employees) {
var id = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem(employees[i]));
}
Here is my code for the Edit button:
//register Edit button
$('.edit_button').live('click', function (e) {
alert('I was Cliked!');
e.stopPropagation();
$.each(employees, function(a, b) {
//if(b.id == employees[i]){
$('#id').val(b.id);
$('#employeeno').val(b.employeeno);
$('#employeename').val(b.employeename);
$("#stateoforigine").val(i.stateoforigine);
$('#employeephone').val(b.employeephone);
$('#dateofbirth').val(b.dateofbirth);
$("#id").attr("readonly","readonly");
$('#employeeno').focus();
$.mobile.changePage('#edit_employee_page');
return false;
//}
});
});
Here is my local Storage:
[
{"id":1,
"employeeno":"DEF/234/20014",
"employeename":"Bill Gates",
"stateoforigine":"Osun",
"employeephone":"080765432",
"dateofbirth":"12/11/1965"},
{"id":2,
"employeeno":"DEF/234/20014",
"employeename":"Bill Gates",
"stateoforigine":"Osun",
"employeephone":"080765432",
"dateofbirth":"12/11/1966"},
{"id":3,
"employeeno":"DEF/234/20014",
"employeename":"Bill Gates",
"stateoforigine":"Osun",
"employeephone":"080765432",
"dateofbirth":"12/11/1966"},
{"id":4,
"employeeno":"DAST/003/2003",
"employeename":"Gold Base",
"stateoforigine":"",
"employeephone":"",
"dateofbirth":"12/03/1986"}
]
Thanks for helping me out

The way you are storing your employees into localStorage is correct, but the way you are getting them out is incorrect. You stored your employees by stating:
localStorage.setItem("employees", JSON.stringify(employees));
So, in order to retrieve them, you must use:
var employees = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("employees"));
You see, you stored the data as a string with a key of "employees"; therefore, you can only retrieve it by that key. Since all data stored in localStorage is saved as a string, you must use JSON.parse() to convert the data back into an object - an array in this case. Then you can iterate over your employees.
Update:
You should be running this code as soon as the page is rendered (see below). I'm not sure how you're doing that - if you're using an IIFE or jQuery's document.ready() function. I don't think it's necessary to store an empty array into localStorage if none were loaded initially, so, I took your else clause out.
var employees = [];
if (localStorage.getItem('employees') !== null) {
employees = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('employees'));
}
Debug this line-by-line when it runs and make positive your employees variable contains data. If it doesn't contain data, well then, there's nothing to edit.
If, however, there is data, then execute your showEmployees() function. Oddly, I'm not seeing in your code where you actually call this. Is it bound to a button or action in your UI? Also, what is that for loop doing after your $('#edit_employee_page') click event function? It's trying to read data from localStorage improperly and it does nothing.
I think if you simply stepped through your code one line at a time using breakpoints and desk-checking your inputs/outputs you'd find out where you're going wrong.

It also appears that there's a disconnect in your code. May be you left out some lines; you define a string editEmployee but out of the blues you store JSON.stringify(employees) whereas employees is not defined in your code:
$('#edit_employee_page').on('click' , function(){
var editEmployee = JSON.stringify({
id: employees.length+1,
//........
});
//Alter the slected data
localStorage.setItem("employees", JSON.stringify(employees));
return true;
});

I had a similar task to do . I did it this way.
I passed the dynamic Id to be passed as an id attribute
id="'+empData.id+'"
and then inside the
$('.edit_button').live('click', function (e) {
alert('I was Cliked!');
var empId=$(this).attr('id');
rest of the code is same.

Breeze Partial initializer

I have a Single Page Application that is working pretty well so far but I have run into an issue I am unable to figure out. I am using breeze to populate a list of projects to be displayed in a table. There is way more info than what I actually need so I am doing a projection on the data. I want to add a knockout computed onto the entity. So to accomplish this I registered and entity constructor like so...
metadataStore.registerEntityTypeCtor(entityNames.project, function () { this.isPartial = false; }, initializeProject);
The initializeProject function uses some of the values in the project to determine what the values should be for the computed. For example if the Project.Type == "P" then the rowClass should = "Red".
The problem I am having is that all the properties of Project are null except for the ProjNum which happens to be the key. I believe the issue is because I am doing the projection because I have registered other initializers for other types and they work just fine. Is there a way to make this work?
EDIT: I thought I would just add a little more detail for clarification. The values of all the properties are set to knockout observables, when I interrogate the properties using the javascript debugger in Chrome the _latestValue of any of the properties is null. The only property that is set is the ProjNum which is also the entity key.
EDIT2: Here is the client side code that does the projection
var getProjectPartials = function (projectObservable, username, forceRemote) {
var p1 = new breeze.Predicate("ProjManager", "==", username);
var p2 = new breeze.Predicate("ApprovalStatus", "!=", "X");
var p3 = new breeze.Predicate("ApprovalStatus", "!=", "C");
var select = 'ProjNum,Title,Type,ApprovalStatus,CurrentStep,StartDate,ProjTargetDate,CurTargDate';
var isQaUser = cookies.getCookie("IsQaUser");
if (isQaUser == "True") {
p1 = new breeze.Predicate("QAManager", "==", username);
select = select + ',QAManager';
} else {
select = select + ',ProjManager';
}
var query = entityQuery
.from('Projects')
.where(p1.and(p2).and(p3))
.select(select);
if (!forceRemote) {
var p = getLocal(query);
if (p.length > 1) {
projectObservable(p);
return Q.resolve();
}
}
return manager.executeQuery(query).then(querySucceeded).fail(queryFailed);
function querySucceeded(data) {
var list = partialMapper.mapDtosToEntities(
manager,
data.results,
model.entityNames.project,
'ProjNum'
);
if (projectObservable) {
projectObservable(list);
}
log('Retrieved projects using breeze', data, true);
}
};
and the code for the partialMapper.mapDtosToEntities function.
var defaultExtension = { isPartial: true };
function mapDtosToEntities(manager,dtos,entityName,keyName,extendWith) {
return dtos.map(dtoToEntityMapper);
function dtoToEntityMapper(dto) {
var keyValue = dto[keyName];
var entity = manager.getEntityByKey(entityName, keyValue);
if (!entity) {
extendWith = $.extend({}, extendWith || defaultExtension);
extendWith[keyName] = keyValue;
entity = manager.createEntity(entityName, extendWith);
}
mapToEntity(entity, dto);
entity.entityAspect.setUnchanged();
return entity;
}
function mapToEntity(entity, dto) {
for (var prop in dto) {
if (dto.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
entity[prop](dto[prop]);
}
}
return entity;
}
}
EDIT3: Looks like it was my mistake. I found the error when I looked closer at initializeProject. Below is what the function looked like before i fixed it.
function initializeProject(project) {
project.rowClass = ko.computed(function() {
if (project.Type == "R") {
return "project-list-item info";
} else if (project.Type == "P") {
return "project-list-item error";
}
return "project-list-item";
});
}
the issue was with project.Type I should have used project.Type() since it is an observable. It is a silly mistake that I have made too many times since starting this project.
EDIT4: Inside initializeProject some parts are working and others aren't. When I try to access project.ProjTargetDate() I get null, same with project.StartDate(). Because of the Null value I get an error thrown from the moment library as I am working with these dates to determine when a project is late. I tried removing the select from the client query and the call to the partial entity mapper and when I did that everything worked fine.

You seem to be getting closer. I think a few more guard clauses in your initializeProject method would help and, when working with Knockout, one is constantly battling the issue of parentheses.
Btw, I highly recommend the Knockout Context Debugger plugin for Chrome for diagnosing binding problems.
Try toType()
You're working very hard with your DTO mapping, following along with John's code from his course. Since then there's a new way to get projection data into an entity: add toType(...) to the end of the query like this:
var query = entityQuery
.from('Projects')
.where(p1.and(p2).and(p3))
.select(select)
.toType('Project'); // cast to Project
It won't solve everything but you may be able to do away with the dto mapping.
Consider DTOs on the server
I should have pointed this out first. If you're always cutting this data down to size, why not define the client-facing model to suit your client. Create DTO classes of the right shape(s) and project into them on the server before sending data over the wire.
You can also build metadata to match those DTOs so that Project on the client has exactly the properties it should have there ... and no more.
I'm writing about this now. Should have a page on it in a week or so.